


Sweet Dreams

by thegreatmachine17



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/M, Hordak deserves happiness but instead I insist on torturing him a bit more, Mind Control, Nightmares, Post Season 5, THERE IS A HAPPY ENDING THO
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:13:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 11,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24794455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegreatmachine17/pseuds/thegreatmachine17
Summary: Following the defeat of Horde Prime, Hordak had planned on recovering and helping Etheria recover in return. He hadn't expected it to be simple. He hadn't expected the after effects of Prime possessing him either.
Relationships: Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Comments: 42
Kudos: 193





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So if anyone has seen the tumblr post I made with the out of context spoilers, this is that fic.

_They were standing in a field of bio-luminescent flowers that stretched as far as the eye could see. In the distance a stream burbled, and insects sang haunting choruses. A pair of moons hung in the sky above Them._

_They were quiet._

_They were alone._

_A small, six legged, antlered animal stopped a few feet away and They held out a hand to it. It blinked at Them, then wandered up and pressed it’s nose into Their palm. A pleasant coolness spread from the spot and through the rest of Their form, carrying with it the subtlest hints of power._

_Of magic._

_They let Their mind meld briefly with it, saw its offspring in its memories, safe in the little burrow it had carved out of the ground with its antlers. Saw the predatory animals that sometimes chased it and the berry bushes it rooted through for food._

_The connection broke abruptly as the creature stepped back. It watched Them for a long moment, then trembled and turned away, bounding back across the field as fast as it’s legs would take it._

_They watched it go._

-

“Hordak?”

Something was pressing gently against his shoulder. He sighed and forced his eyes open.

Entrapta stood next to his bed, watching him curiously as he stretched and attempted to work the soreness from his body. Whatever Prime had done to keep the pain at bay had worn off in the days following Prime's death. Without them every movement took effort, even with the temporary armor Entrapta had made for him. The arm he’d lifted Prime with hurt the most. Even now, weeks afterwards, the muscles would cramp at the smallest of exertions.

“Hordak?” Entrapta leaned closer. “How do you feel? You were acting kind of strange when you were sleeping just now.” 

“It was nothing.” Hordak swung his legs over the side of the bed, testing his weight on them before standing. “I had a dream. That’s all.”

“Ooh, I love hearing about dreams.” She followed him as he shuffled to the little bathroom, and watched as he splashed the sleep from his face and picked up a tube of eyeliner. “The images brains generate when people are unconscious is fascinating! What was it about?”

“I was on a planet I’ve never seen before and one of the native fauna came up to me. It touched my palm and I… saw into its mind. I think. "

A muscle twitched in his arm. When he looked in the mirror, he’d drawn a crooked line across his face with the eyeliner. 

“Was it an interesting planet?” Entrapta grabbed a towel and wiped away the misplaced makeup, then used a strand of hair to take the eyeliner from him and copy the work he’d done on the first eye.

“It was very aesthetically pleasing. The plants generated their own light.”

-

After a breakfast of nutrient smoothie concocted by Entrapta and Kadroh, who was thankfully a much more sensible cook then Entrapta, they went back to work on his new armor. 

“Hordak Armor 2.0, Log 32, test number 5.” Entrapta chattered to Emily as she hooked the last few cables into his ports. “I’ve swapped out the wiring on the central command chip to better synchronize with the frequencies of the first ones crystal powering it, Emily attach file ‘suit command chip 3.1’ to this recording please.” 

The bot beeped a confirmation and Entrapta grinned.

“This should provide a more even distribution of power within the armors systems, provided that it also works well with Hordaks cybernetics.” She spun on her hair to check the computer screen, then looked back at Hordak. “Initial readings are stable. Hey Hordak, before I disable the limiter on the power output, does anything hurt?”

“I feel no worse than normal.” 

“Then I’m setting it to full power!” With a flourish of purple hair, she hit a button on the computer. 

At first he didn’t notice anything. And then a subtle warmth started at the central port on the back of his neck and spread slowly through the rest of his body. He felt his muscles relax and the ache that had come to underline his every waking moment faded away to almost nothing. Before he could stop it a pleased sigh escaped him. 

The new armor was lighter, a fabric backed mesh of reinforced wires and sensors that lay flat against the outer surfaces of his limbs and across his chest but left spots where it might pinch or rub against itself bare. He lifted his arms over his head then brought them around to either side, watching it flex with his movements. It would be easy to hide under clothes, and the design even allowed for it to be taken in or, in the unlikely event that he gained back any of the muscle mass he’d lost over the last few decades, let out to fit with very little difficulty. The old one with its metal plating would have needed a complete redesign. 

He didn’t even mind the white showing through.

“This feels even better than the old armor.” 

“Fantastic!” She ducked behind him and removed the cable connecting the armor to the console. “Now we just need to test its effect on your strength and reflexes. We’ll start small though. I don’t want any fuses blowing. That could hurt. And I'd have to track them down and replace them. Now THINK FAST!”

She’d barely finished the shout before a pipe wrench went sailing past his head, clattering to a stop against the wall behind him. His ears pinned back as a metallic ringing filled the lab.

“Hordak, you’re supposed to catch it!.” Her hair scooped up a second one from the rack. “Let’s try that again.”

This time when she threw it he caught it with ease. 

They spent the rest of the morning playing a one sided game of catch with increasingly heavier objects from around the lab, only stopping when Kadroh walked in with a tray of fruit slices and tiny sandwiches and narrowly avoided being crushed by a partially disassembled maintenance robot.

Later that night, settled into his nest of pillows, pleasantly tired from the armor tests and for once not even slightly in pain, Hordak fell asleep easier than he ever had in the Fright Zone.

-

_They had trailed the antlered creature across the flower field and into an area of taller, equally bright vegetation. As They watched from a distance it stopped at a stream and bent it’s neck down to drink._

_Something stirred in the bushes nearby, nearly silent as it shifted it’s position. Before They could get a chance to look closer, a sharp crack echoed across the forest. The sound ripped through Them, and for a moment They could do little more than wait and recover._

_As the world came back into focus They saw the creature._

_Bright blue spilled from a hole in its side. It twitched feebly for a few moments, and then lay still._

_A native of the planet swaggered out of the bush, trailed by two others. Looking far too cheerful it knelt by the creature and examined the antlers, then ripped them off._

_As it got to its feet and walked away, antlers in hand, They felt a sudden unbridled rage rip through Them, consuming every thought just as the noise had only a few moments ago. They launched Themselves at it, digging into its mind, pulling up memories, claiming its limbs as Their own, and turning it on his heel. Bringing it back towards the river, into the river, under the river. They heard It’s friends screaming at it from the shore, and felt the water filling it’s lungs…_

-

He was woken up by his own wheezing gasps for air.

Kadroh stood over him. His ears twitched and his blue sequin shirt reflected almost the same shade as the blood from the dream. Hovering on her hair just behind Kadroh was Entrapta, still dressed in an over sized makers guild t-shirt and purple pajama pants.

“Are you alright brother?” Kadroh asked. “I could hear you from the hallway.”

He stared up at them both, drawing slow breaths until his breathing had stabilized, then grabbed the cup of water on his bedside table and took several large gulps. Finally he spoke.

“I am fine.”

The corners of Entrapta’s mouth dropped into a frown and she pushed in front of Kadroh. “Are you sure? It’s not your defect acting up is it?”

“No.” Hordak said. “I was merely having a stressful dream.”

“Hordak you sounded like you were choking. And you don’t usually dream. I’ve watched you sleep _at least_ a hundred times and these last two nights are the only times I’ve observed it happening.”

He couldn’t bring himself to be bothered, or even surprised, by that particular revelation. “I suspect that is because I was rarely able to achieve a sound enough sleep to reach REM state. In any case, as I said, I’m fine.”

“I hope so. Because now that we’ve got your armor working…”

“Salineas. I know.” Hordak folded aside his blankets. “When are we leaving?”

“As soon as everything is packed.” Entrapta said. “I was getting one of my portable consoles ready when Kadroh called me.”

Hordak nodded. “And imp? Does he still wish to stay with Kyle and Rogelio while we are away?”

“He does.” Entrapta said. “He says hello though.”

“He only likes them because they let him get away with everything.”

“Imp?” Kadroh grinned. “The small chubby one with wings that I met at the rebellion camp? He’s so cute!”

“Imp is not chubby.”

“No Kadroh’s right, Imp definitely got chubby. Didn’t you notice his squishy little cheeks?” 

Hordak stood and stepped past them. “I’m going to go collect my things from the lab.”

“I’ll meet you there!” Entrapta called after him.


	2. Chapter 2

Hordak looked out over the ruins of Salineas from the deck of the ship, and fought back a wave of nervousness that was only partially due to being on a flimsy wooden vessel that contained both Entrapta and Sea Hawk. His sensitive ears could make out the soft clicks and hums of the construction robots below deck, just over a quarter of what he and Entrapta had built or repurposed over the last few weeks.

He could also make out a faint retching sound from the back of the boat.

Hordak scanned the deck. Entrapta was below, putting a few finishing touches on the robots, Sea Hawk stood at the wheel. He’d been mercifully silent for nearly fifteen minutes, focusing on navigating through a patch of shallow reefs instead of singing. Near the back, bent over the rail, was Kadroh. 

Hesitantly, Hordak crossed the deck and stopped at Kadroh’s side. Recalling a time Imp had overindulged in sweets and been similarly sick, he reached out and, rather awkwardly, began rubbing the spot between Kadroh’s shoulders. “We are almost there brother.”

“I don’t…” Kadroh winced as the boat rocked on a wave. His ears twitched frantically as he gagged over the rail again. “I don’t like this method of transportation.”

“It isn’t for everyone. When I ran my version of The Horde, several of my soldiers had similarly adverse reactions to boat travel. I believe Catra was one of them.”

“Really?” Kadroh said. “But she’s so tough!”

Behind them, Seahawk drew in a long breath. “OOOH The ocean doesn’t care if you are tough, when the waves are mighty rooooouuugh.”

Hordak groaned. They’d almost made it the rest of the way to shore without a shanty.

-

Kadroh all but sprinted down the gangplank and across the makeshift dock, ignoring Mermista in favor of collapsing into the sand the moment his boots touched it and pulling a pile of it into a hug.

“Is he OK?” Mermista asked.

“Greetings, Princess Mermista.” Hordak leaned forward in a small bow. “Kadroh is fine. He simply doesn’t enjoy sea travel.”

Entrapta emerged from below deck, leading the small army of robots. “Hi Mermista! Where do you want us to start?”

Mermista eyed the robots. “I’ll let you set up your things in the… well, it’s just a cabin really, the castle’s too unstable, and then you can start in the southern neighborhood and work your way down the shore. By the way, those robots get one chance. If even one malfunctions and hurts someone, I want them gone.”

“You won’t be disappointed.” Entrapta patted the nearest one with her hair. “We have these babies deployed all over Etheria and they haven’t hurt a thing. Well actually, probably some insects. And plants. And they’ve definitely vaporized a whole lot of microorganisms. But otherwise they’re harmless!”

“Just get set up and start working.”

-

Hordak poked at the salad and steamed fish on his plate. 

Somewhere between his arrival and the days spent sorting through rubble and disabling the remnants of Horde Primes machinery, his already finicky appetite had deserted him. He could feel Entrapta’s concerned eyes boring into him and, if only to keep her happy, he speared a bit of the fish on his fork and ate it. Whatever flavor it may have had was lost among his nerves and racing thoughts. When Entrapta’s gaze remained steady he sighed, forced down the rest of his food, and stood. 

“I’ll be by the canal if you need me.”

Entrapta gave him a thumbs up with her hair and he left the rest of the work crew behind.

The canal that ran through most of the city had been the one thing since arriving in Salineas that didn’t remind him of the damage he and Prime had done to the place. The steady splashing of the small waves was enough to drown out the noise of other clean up crews in the distance, especially at high tide, and watching the sea life that occasionally drifted through it had proved to be a reasonable distraction.

Today he was greeted by a school of jellyfish that had been washed in by the tide, glowing gently in the evening light.

Among the jellyfish something moved. He leaned closer.

There was a face just below the surface, eerily familiar, eyes wide as it gasped for air, a hand stretched out towards him.

Instinct took over. He grabbed the hand. 

For just a moment the face shifted. It’s eyes flashed green and it’s mouth shifted into a smirk. 

And then he was pulled forward into the water.

His head struck something solid and his vision spun, jellyfish bounced off of him, stinging the exposed skin in the gaps of his armor. He could hear muffled voices. Suddenly there was a splash and someone was in the canal with him. An arm closed around his chest, and then his face was above water. The familiar tendrils of Entrapta’s hair curled around him and he was lifted the rest of the way out, coughing up water the whole way. A second later another person, Sea Hawk, was set down nearby.

“Hordak what happened? How’s your armor? Oh I knew I should have run a few more tests on it’s water resistance!”

“I… I thought...” Hordak coughed and glanced back at the canal. An algae covered statue stared back at him from its crooked resting spot beneath the surface. He looked back at Entrapta and the crowd of curious crew members behind her, wincing as light from the lantern one carried hit his eyes. He definitely had a concussion. “I… slipped. That’s all.”

She didn’t believe him. But she knew enough not to push for answers. Not in front of all these people. “Come on.” She pulled him to his feet with her hair, careful to avoid the stings. “We need to get you to the medical tent.”

“Wait a minute.” 

She paused, and Hordak turned to face Sea Hawk. “I still find your ‘sea shanties’ unpleasant. But... thank you.”

Sea Hawk paused his examination of a sting on his hand and looked up, clearly startled. “Um… you’re welcome? I mean of course! You’re welcome! It’s not every day I get to execute such a daring rescue!”

Hordak forced a smile. Between the concussion and the jellyfish venom he was starting to feel nauseous. “Don’t push it.”

If Sea Hawk had said anything more Hordak didn’t hear it. He was too busy being dragged away by Entrapta.

Once in the medical tent he was stripped of his armor and set up on a cot. Entratpa had just left to get the scanner she’d built to look at his cybernetics when Kadroh rushed in, either missing or ignoring several nurses’ protests.

“Brother, I heard you were hurt! How are you...”

Kadrohs’ concerned but loud voice was too much. Hordak rolled onto his side, just in time to expel partially digested fish and the last traces of the sea water he’d swallowed onto the floor below his cot. 

“Oh.” Kadroh winced and covered his nasal passage. “Uh… sorry. Was that my fault?”

“He’s having a severe reaction to jellyfish venom. And bleeding from a head wound on top of that.” A nurse approached with a tray loaded with tweezers, towels, ointments, needles, surgical thread and beakers, and glared at Kadroh. “So I recommend you shut up, or leave.”

He was bleeding? How had he failed to notice that?

“Right. Sorry.” Kadroh whispered. “I’ll just stay in the corner. And be quiet.”

Once Entrapta returned she and the doctors had quickly confirmed what he’d hoped. That the concussion, while clearly present, was minor. The venom on the other hand...

Hordak had never spent an entire night having jellyfish stingers pulled out of his skin before, and he quickly decided he never wanted to again.


	3. Chapter 3

Entrapta wasted no time interrogating him the next day, holding off only long enough to clean his armor and lay it out to dry on the floor of the little cabin Mermista had assigned to them.

“So.” She dropped onto the couch next to him and kept her voice soft but firm. “What happened at the canal?”

Hordak glanced up from the bandages wrapped around his limbs and frowned at Entrapta. “I’m... not sure. I was looking into the water and I thought… I thought I saw someone. When I reached for them they… their eyes...” He pressed a hand to his forehead, careful to avoid the stitches. “Green. Like…”

“Like Prime.” 

Hordak nodded.

“Sounds like a hallucination.” Entrapta said. “Interesting. Concerning certainly, but interesting.”

A strangled laugh escaped him, the effort sending a wave of pain through his body. 

“What is it?” 

“Prime.” His hand clenched shut, claws digging into his palm. “Somehow this is Primes' fault. In those dreams back at Dryl I don’t… It didn’t feel like it was _me_ . It was a planet I’d never been to, life forms I’d never seen. Entrapta, I made someone _drown_ themselves. Just took control and then… I could feel the water in their lungs…”

Entrapta slid her hair over his shoulders. Two smaller strands split off to massage his ears. Gradually, he felt his heart rate drop. A soft chirp escaped him and he leaned into her, barely noticing the pain as his damaged skin flexed under the bandages.

“You didn’t do that.” She murmured. “These dreams and hallucinations are likely nothing more than a side effect from Prime controlling and ‘dying’ in your body.”

“I suppose you're right but… what if they get worse?”

“They won’t.” Entrapta said. “I don’t know how yet, but I’ll make sure of it.”

Entrapta’s tracker pad buzzed. Keeping up the ear massage with one ponytail, she checked the message with the other, then set the pad down.

“Kadroh’s coming in.”

She’d barely finished the warning when the door opened and Kadroh stepped inside, carrying a little tray of banana slices. Where he’d found fresh bananas in post war Salineas of all places Hordak couldn’t be sure.

“Hordak?” Kadroh shifted his weight slightly, his ears twitching so wildly that Hordak barely even registered that he had been called by his name instead of ‘brother'. 

Kadrohs ears seemed to twitch a lot. Even when Kadroh was angry or upset they never stayed pinned back for long, and quickly fell back into that constant twitching. The only time he’d ever seen them completely still was when Kadroh was sleeping. Once he was able to look at a screen without vomiting, Hordak decided he was going to check the younger clone for neurological damage.

“Yes Kadroh?”

“I didn’t mean to make you feel worse last night and I wanted to apologize somehow so... I brought you banana’s.” He set the tray down on the living room table, careful to put it on the fabric tablecloth instead of bare wood.

“There is nothing to apologize for.” Loud intrusions or not, the ordeal of having the stingers removed would have set off a vomiting episode eventually. “But thank you. You may have some if you’d like.”

“Oh, I already ate my half. That’s all for you.” 

Hordak didn’t need access to the hive mind to imagine Kadroh excitedly buying, or possibly stealing, bananas and not deciding until they were half gone that _maybe_ he should share.

His laugh, while quiet, was genuine this time. 

-

_Smog filled the grimy streets. They breathed it in through dozens of lungs as They jumped from body to body. This planet was the worst They’d seen yet. They could feel the life being drained from one body. Feel the tumor under it’s skin. In another They limped on it’s poorly healed limb. Countless bodies hurt from less acute sources, either from overwork, empty stomachs, or both. As They retreated back to Their vessel and looked over the crowds, They came to a decision._

_It all had to go._

-

It took all of Hordak’s willpower to drag himself off the couch and into the kitchen. Entrapta looked up from her console as he entered and frowned.

“Hordak, I only say this because I care about you, but you look awful.”

Hordak didn’t bother responding. Instead he opened the cooler they kept some of their chemicals in and stuck his face into it in a futile attempt to halt the oncoming headache.

“So, how long do you think it’ll be until you two can be… back… What did I just walk into?”

The voice wasn’t Entrapta’s. Panic shot through Hordak and he attempted to extricate himself from the cooler, bumped the back of his head on the door, and was only just caught by Entrapta’s hair before he hit the ground.

“Right. Not for a while then.” Mermista eyed the two of them as Hordak was helped back to his feet and crossed her arms. “If I’d known Hordak was going to try and swim with stinging jellies I’d never have bothered making you sign that agreement.”

Entrapta’s hair frizzed. Hordak stood as straight as he could manage and bared his claws.

“Get out!” 

“Get. Out.”

The volume of their combined voices was enough to hurt and, for just a second, his attempt at composure gave way to a grimace of pain.

Mermista was staring shamelessly now. “Ugh. You two really are an item. Gross.”

“You know, it’s considered rude to enter a space where someone’s living without knocking!” Entrapta advanced on Mermista, hair splitting off into tendrils around her. “Especially when both people living there are scientists. You could have walked into the middle of an experiment and gotten hurt.”

“I was the one who lent you this place, Geek Princess. If you think I’m scared of you…”

A blow torch, hammer, and wrench materialized from among Entrapta’s hair. Something dangerous flashed in her eyes.

“Then I’ll go.” Mermista relented. “Sorry for disturbing you two. I’ll let you get back to… whatever it was you were doing.”

Hordak waited until the door had slammed shut to collapse into a chair.

“No wonder you never bothered leaving your castle.”

“Yeah, the other Princesses can be very distracting. Remind me to install some kind of trap on the door later. Now,” Entrapta dropped the tools and scooped up the bag the nurses had given her instead. "Let’s change those bandages.”

Hordak didn’t particularly feel like seeing the fresh scars that covered his already disfigured body. Nevertheless he held out an arm for Entrapta. “Make it quick.”


	4. Chapter 4

HIs first day back among the rubble, a day that Entrapta had argued vehemently for putting off a little longer, was a disaster. The scars itched under his armor and while he could look at a screen, it had to be still. Once the scrolling started, so did the nausea. A piece of still glowing tech, broken off of Prime’s robots, left him throwing rocks at a green eyed shadow that only he could see. 

The itchy scars and screen sickness had eventually gotten better. They were the only things that did.

After noticing unusual readings from his cybernetics while putting his armor back on one morning, Entrapta had started keeping her scanner with her at all times and stuck close to him whenever possible, both to make sure he was okay and to keep an eye on the readings. 

She’d even gone as far as curling up next to him when they slept, something that the rest of the crew whispered about constantly, unaware of his excellent hearing. He’d overheard countless things that, judging by the tone in which they were spoken, he didn’t dare repeat to her, both for her sake and for the sake of the crew members physical well being.

The ‘dreams’ continued. Sometimes they were as simple as he, They, Prime sampling an exceptionally nice plate of food. Sometimes he, They, Prime, where observing the ashes of a conquered planet with barely suppressed glee. Once he’d woken up screaming along with the voices of a ‘failed’ batch of clones, and that same morning while putting on eyeliner he could have sworn he’d seen traces of green creeping out of eyes that had been red for months. 

The only silver lining was the readings from Entrapta’s scanner, because the data pointed towards an uptick in activity from his cybernetics that coincided perfectly with the dreams.

If this was a matter of programming or anything tech related, it could be fixed. 

But for that they needed Entrapta’s lab, and Mermista insisted that they follow through on their deal to help clean up Salineas before they could go back to Dryl. They’d been sentenced to community service and hallucinations or not, she was going to make them finish it.

She’d also insisted on checking in on his and Entrapta’s group more than any of the others.

Which was why he was currently glaring down at her and withholding a few choice words. “You were just here yesterday Princess Mermista. Is our progress so slow that you needed to check again?”

“Your progress is fine.” Mermista crossed her arms. “I’m here because… I need your help.”

He did his best to keep from showing his surprise. “My help? I thought you didn’t trust me.”

“I don’t. But they need someone like them to talk to and as far as first impressions go Kadroh is a bit… overwhelming.”

“They?” Hordak frowned.

“Horde clones.” There was an obvious effort behind keeping her neutral expression. “We found them hiding in one of the less destroyed houses in the east quarter of the city. They’re... confused.”

“Horde clones?!” 

Entrapta had materialized from among the rubble.

“Yes Geek Princess, clones.”

“Well then what are we waiting for?” Entrapta’s hair wrapped around his wrist. “Lets go!”

-

Only a handful of clones had been deployed to the already conquered husk of Salineas. Knowing that some were still here, months after Prime’s death, was one thing. Actually seeing them proved to be quite another. 

Hordak had grown so used to seeing Kadroh, with his ever changing hair colors and headache inducing outfits, and himself with his red eyes and makeup and dark dresses, that the little group of clones and their sameness actually sent a wave of nervousness through him. 

More than nervousness if he was being honest. Those green eyes…

No. Prime was dead. He would not fall for any hallucinations. Not now. 

Lurking just out of the firelights reach, Entrapta gave him several thumbs up with her hair.

He took a deep breath and approached. “Hello, brothers.”

There were four of them and up close there was no mistaking any of them for Prime. Their robes were dirty and torn, their eyes tired and dull. Three of them sported messy attempts at keeping their hair short, but one had let it grow. Someone had given them food and while one clone had emptied his plate, the rest looked untouched. Hordak couldn’t blame them for that. It had taken him a while to get used to etherian food too.

The long haired one looked up from the fire and stared at Hordak’s face. At his eyes, probably. “Brother?”

“My name is Hordak.” 

A second clone stood, and glared at him. “We do not have names.”

Prime was dead. _Prime was dead._

“We can have them now, if we want to.” Hordak stepped closer, hands up to indicate he meant no harm. “How long have you been hiding here?”

“We’ve been here since our minds… since the voices of our brothers went silent.” The long haired clone shivered and pulled his legs against his body. 

“Do not talk to him!” The second clone snapped. “He is defying Primes' will. And he is defective. Look at his arms.” 

Prime was dead. _Prime was dead._

“Defective or not, I’ve survived for decades without the hive mind. I can promise all of you that you will be okay as well.”

The long haired clone sat a little straighter, his grip on his legs loosening. “Really? What was it like?”

Four sets of green eyes were focused on him now. One narrowed in suspicion, the others curious.

“I felt… lost at first, as I’m sure you do now. In my attempts to regain contact with… with Prime...” 

Prime was dead. _Prime was dead._

“I made a lot of enemies. A lot of mistakes.” He glanced back at Entrapta, the blue-green eyes of her mask glowing in the shadows. “But I also learned how to be myself, and accept my imperfections. I made friends.”

“You rejected Prime. You allowed yourself to become weak.” The second clone bared his claws. “And by calling him here, you called him to his doom. I was loyal. I was strong. I wished to be his next vessel. _You_ ruined it.”

Prime was dead. _Prime was…_

Claws slashed across Hordaks cheek, and he stumbled back in surprise. Once he’d regained his footing he brought a hand to his face to check the wound. It came back bloody. 

The second clone charged again, but this time Hordak was ready. He sidestepped another attempt at clawing him and grabbed the clone by the wrist, twisting their arm behind their back and pinning them easily to the ground. He felt the armor moving with him, supporting him.

“I am not weak.” Hordak growled at the clone. “You would do well to remember that.”

He dropped the clones arm and they rose to their feet together, the clone nursing what was at least a sprained wrist. Green eyes met red. 

Suddenly it wasn’t a nameless clone he was looking at, but Prime. 

This time it wasn’t a physical blow that sent him stumbling back. Prime moved closer, his scowl shifting into a sneer. He reached for Hordak with his uninjured arm and Hordak backed away further, stumbled, and fell into a pile of rubble.

“Get away from him!”

Purple filled his vision.

Entrapta.

Entrapta was here. Prime was dead. He was fine.

A strand of purple hair appeared on either side of his face. One of them produced a rag and patted away the blood. “Hordak, are you okay?”

He shook off the last of the hallucination and stared up at her. Her eyes were bright with concern and adrenaline. The clone was struggling in the unrelenting grasp of her hair. Behind all that was a sky full of stars and planets and moons.

Driven entirely by instinct, he pulled her closer and pressed his lips against hers. There was a second of surprise from her before she relaxed and melted into the touch.

By the time they pulled away from each other everyone, clones and Etherians alike, were staring at them.

One of the previously silent clones flicked his ears in surprise. “What was _that?_ ”

The second clone only got angrier, and struggled even harder against his purple prison Eventually, for the sake of both his own well being and that of the others around him he was chained up, led away to one of the still standing houses, and locked inside. 

Entrapta watched him go. A thoughtful frown on her face. “He’s a zealous one, isn’t he? I think I’ll call him Zee.”

There were still quite a lot of people staring at him and Entrapta, but Hordak forced himself to ignore the embarrassment burning in the tips of his ears and instead turned his focus to the rest of the clones. 

With Zee gone, they were visibly calmer. One even asked Hordak where the markings around his eyes came from, and listened eagerly as Hordak explained what eyeliner was. It was nearly midnight before Mermista pulled him away, thanked him for his help without meeting his eyes, or even looking at his face for that matter, and sent him and Entrapta back to their own group.

As they walked back along the canal, Entrapta looked up at him, a strangely subdued smile on her face. “You know, I’ve never been kissed before.”

He looked down at her, his ears hot again. “Is that what it’s called?”

She laughed. “Yes Hordak, that’s what it’s called.” She took his hand in hers. Her real hand, not one made of hair. “And we should _definitely_ test it again sometime.”


	5. Chapter 5

After the kiss, perhaps because of it, the dreams and hallucinations were gone for nearly four days straight.

He hadn’t expected them to stay gone. He also hadn’t expected the manner in which they’d returned.

It was the ache of overworked muscles that snapped him out of the dream and into the present. 

A present in which he had somehow risen from his cot, travelled several hundred feet past the edge of the camp, and began attacking a wall so intensely that he’d bloodied his hands and strained the muscles in his arms. He could only vaguely remember the dream, one where he, They, Prime, had been absolutely furious with someone.

Mermista had taken one look at the situation and grudgingly acknowledged that maybe it would be better if Hordak went back to Dryl, at least until he and Entrapta could figure out the root of the dreams.

Leaving their robots behind so they could still help with cleaning up in that capacity, and Kadroh, who had quickly bonded with the group of horde clones, he and Entrapta had packed up their things and left.

-

“Hello computer! Hello workbench! Hello lab! I missed you so much!”

Hordak couldn’t help but smile as he watched Entrapta perform a full sweep of the lab, hugging each and every station with both hair and arms. Once the last toolbox and screen had received it’s hug, she came for him, her hair tangling around his limbs and pulling him towards the nearest console.

He went along with it, trusting her completely as she unhooked the armor at his neck and plugged a cable into the port instead, connecting his cybernetics to the console.

The screen filled up with readings from the past months. Data on his armor usage, information on his physical state, and even readings from the environments he’d been in. 

Blinking in the corner, in a spot that should have been empty because _Prime was dead_ , was a faint signal.

They stared at it, both processing what it could mean.

Entrapta realized it first. “Prime must have had some sort of back up plan.”

Hordak didn’t, couldn’t, take his eyes off the signal. “If so, judging by what I’ve… experienced... there’s something wrong with it. It only seems to take effect when my guard is down.” 

“I bet it latched on to you because you were Primes last host.” Entrapta plugged a hard drive into the console and began copying the data onto it. “Like a computer virus. Had the hive mind stayed intact it might have been capable of spreading to other clones. Instead it’s trapped in your cybernetics.”

Hordak stared down at his bandaged hands and discolored arms. His ears drooped. 

Purple hair appeared around his shoulders and pushed his chin up so he was looking into her eyes. “Don’t worry Hordak. If I can get a malicious First One's virus out of an entire castle, then I can do this. We just need to find the source and shut it down!” 

The computer beeped and Entrapta released him and turned to unplug the hard drive.

“The Velvet Glove.”

“The what?” Entrapta removed the cable from his neck port and began reconnecting his armor.

“Primes ship. The Velvet Glove.” Hordak sighed in relief as the armor's effects took hold again. “Even if he didn’t destroy every planet he touches, it’s the only place he’d consider worthy enough to keep a backup. Trust me, he’s been in my head.”

“Then we go to his ship, which has an awful name by the way. Once there, I could track it down easily!” 

“The princesses would never let us.”

“Who said we had to ask them?”

“Entrapta.” Hordak wasn’t sure how to feel about the way she’d said that, or the look on her face. “What did you do?”

“Well, let’s just say Darla isn’t the only space ship I’ve been up close and personal with.”

It took Hordak a moment to process that statement, and then he couldn’t help but grin too.

-

“Hordak, meet Dorothy!” Entrapta swung her hair out to present the little Horde fighter currently parked in one of the hidden rooms under the castle. It’s running lights flicked on at the mention of its name. The Horde wings had been painted over and replaced with a stylized purple gear. 

“How did you…?”

“I noticed an access link to the Horde fleet in one of the consoles the first time I was on Primes ship and I couldn’t resist.” Entrapta ran a lock of hair along Dorothy’s hull. “I’ve been working on her ever since. Getting rid of Primes' influence, and modifying the controls to accept non Horde input mainly. I think she likes me.”

As exciting as it was to have a ship at their disposal, Hordak could already see a problem. “You do realize these ships are meant for one person. Right?”

“Oh trust me I know.” 

There was that grin again. He felt the tips of his ears starting to heat up. 

“The two of us are about to get _real_ close.”

-

If it had just been Entrapa that he had to share the cockpit with, the cramped space might have been okay. Once her hair was thrown into the mix, things changed . 

Not because the hair itself was uncomfortable to be near, it very much wasn’t, but because it went everywhere, poking and prodding at the controls with a casualness that made him nervous. The fighter was armed with guns after all .

“Are you certain you don’t want me to pilot this craft?” He winced as the ship wobbled through the last of the atmosphere and ducked his head a little lower to avoid bumping it on the sloped window.

“Of course I’m certain!” A huge smile had been plastered across Entrapta’s face since they’d achieved a mildly terrifying lift off. “I’ve never actually gotten to fly Dorothy before and I’d hate to have all those simulator hours go to waste.”

“Very well.” Hordak said. “Tell me if you need assistance. I’ve operated these ships before, although they were’t modified to the extent that this one... Dorothy... has been.”

Entrapta’s only response was to grin even wider, angle the ship towards the tree that had once been the Velvet Glove, and punch the throttle. 


	6. Chapter 6

“Please let me fly on the way back.” Hordak growled as he climbed out of the ship on half asleep legs. “You’ll fit much more comfortably in the back than I do.”

“I make no promises.” Entrapta slid to the landing deck and looked around. 

The inside of The Velvet Glove had been as thoroughly transformed as the outside. Roots and vines pierced through the ceilings and floors and framed holes in the walls that definitely hadn’t been there before. There was still green, and a lot of it. But it was the rich, dark green of plant life, rather than the acid green of Horde Prime. The lights that weren’t already broken flickered in their sockets. How they were still connected to any power source at all, Hordak wasn’t sure.

“I… suppose we should start looking.”

Entrapta nodded and pulled a scanner out of her bag. 

Hordak watched her fiddle with it for a moment, then walked to the nearest doorway and examined the hallways leading off to either side. The ship even smelled different. A sweet earthy smell instead of the clinical harshness of cleaners and polish. He shut his eyes and breathed it in.

_Prime was dead._

“So. The good news is, I’ve got the signal.” Entrapta appeared next to him, a strand of hair looped around the scanner. “And it’s definitely here.”

“You say that as though there’s also bad news.” Hordak said.

“It’s not that bad really. It's just that the scanner can’t seem to settle on a direction. Here, look.”

Hordak took it from her and considered the readings. The graphs fluctuated from one second to the next, at first suggesting the source was below them, then to their left. For a heart stopping second it seemed to hover right over them.

_Prime was dead._

Hordak considered the screen, then brought up one of the menus. “I’ll program it to look for a pattern in the signals movements. We may be able to narrow it down from... there…”

The readings were gathering near them again. 

_“What do you think you're doing Little Brother?”_

Hordak flinched and nearly dropped the scanner. He was only vaguely aware of Entrapta’s hair tightening around his wrist.

Standing in front of them, his face and right side strangely distorted, was Horde Prime.

 _“What do you… what do you… b-b-brother?”_ The voice echoed strangely though the hallway.

Entrapta snapped out of it first and padded closer on her hair, then waved a hand through Primes insubstantial form. 

“It’s okay Hordak! Look! He’s a hologram!” 

For a second Prime seemed to solidify. His eyes met Hordaks, or maybe Hordak had already been looking at him. Then the hologram vanished and the scanner resumed it’s wild searching.

“I… I know.” Hordak turned his attention back to the scanner and set it to record the readings, then handed it back to Entrapta. “Give it about ten minutes, and then we’ll check the results. If that doesn’t work we’ll continue checking in ten minute bursts until we do notice something.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Entrapta hooked the scanner to her belt. “Now, since we don’t have anyone else to deal with, let’s explore! There’s so much I didn’t get to see last time!”

She looked so excited he couldn’t help but allow a little smile. “Since I am familiar with the ship's layout, before it became a giant tree at any rate, I can guide you towards certain areas if you’d like.” 

“Oh Hordak, that would be wonderful! Just let me know if you don’t feel comfortable with certain places. Okay? I won’t make you go somewhere if you don’t want to.”

This time he surprised himself with an actual chuckle. “Sounds like a plan.”

-

Between the steady bursts of the scanners recordings and the sheer amount of data Entrapta was collecting on their tour through the ship, Hordak was beginning to wonder if they had brought a large enough hard drive.

They’d drifted into the lower decks while they waited for any patterns to emerge. As Entrapta knelt to examine the latest piece of equipment, a cracked open vat that had once been used to grow proteins for amniotic fluid, something moved in the corner of Hordak’s vision. He turned just in time to see smudged white robes disappear through the doorway.

His first instinct was to follow it. Instead he grabbed the scanner from Entrapta’s hip, just in time to see the signal scatter away from them.

“Hordak?” Entrapta stood, checking the scanner before looking up at him. 

“I believe another hologram just manifested.” He nodded towards the doorway. 

“Really?” Entrapta went over to the door and looked out. “It didn’t say anything?”

Hordak shook his head. “I only saw it for a moment. It drifted off towards the left and disappeared.”

“Well then what are we waiting for? Let’s follow it! It’s not like we’ve seen the signal really settle anywhere yet. Maybe it’s trying to communicate something to us.” 

First instinct or not, something felt distinctly wrong about following any version of Horde Prime, let alone this strange corrupted hologram. “I’m hardly inclined to like the thought of an artificial Horde Prime trying to say anything.”

“Well do you have a better Idea?”

Admittedly, he didn’t. “Very well. But if we are led into a trap, it's going to be your fault.”

-

Entrapta, it seemed, had been onto something. As they made their way through the hallways, a second silent hologram appeared, then a third and fourth. The appearances were brief and distorted, and If Entrapta hadn’t been next to him, sprinting after them as they appeared, he would have been convinced that they were hallucinations. 

They were being led towards the center of the ship.

It wasn’t until a door opened onto the lower level of Primes throne room that Hordak realized why they had been led there.

The room had been completely transformed. A tree within the tree that The Velvet Glove had become. FIreflies filled every space. Thousands upon thousands of living stars varying in color from yellow to orange to white.

But It wasn’t the fireflies or the tree that caught his attention. 

It was the pale shape leaning against one of the large roots.

Hordak stared at it for a long moment, swallowed his fear, and approached.

Four empty sockets seemed to stare into his soul, and the skin had shrunk to see-through tightness over shattered bones and damaged cybernetics. A trail of dried blood suggested that he’d survived the fall. How long he’d lived after that Hordak couldn’t be sure. 

But Horde Prime was very much dead. 

No, Prime’s last chosen vessel was dead. Prime had just happened to have died not long afterwards.

Hordak dropped into a kneel, placed a hand against the ruined collarbone, and bowed his head. “You didn’t deserve to suffer like this, Brother.”

When he rose, he was surrounded by hundreds of flickering holograms of Horde Prime.

He could do little more than stare as they stabilized in one fluid motion, fixed their digital gaze on him, and scowled. 

_“You have forgotten who you are!”_

_“You have become an abomination.”_

_“You must be reborn.”_

Their voices bounced off the walls and ceiling. Echoes layered over echoes, becoming a cacophonous noise that hurt his ears and set him trembling. The few working lights flared brighter and then burst, the sparks mingling with the fireflies. His cybernetics felt like they were trying to tear him apart from the inside out.

_“You have forgotten...“_

_“...become an abomination.”_

_“...reborn.... reborn… reborn... ”_

“Stop!” Hordak groaned and curled in on himself, his claws dug into his arms, slicing through the wires of his armor. “Stop! Please!”

As suddenly as they’d started, the voices stopped. 

And then hundreds of hands lifted into the air and snapped their fingers.


	7. Chapter 7

“Hordak?”

Hordak winced and pushed himself away from the console, then raised his hand to examine the fresh scorch mark. It could have been a lot worse really. “I’m okay.”

Purple hair took the hand anyway, turning it over a few times as Entrapta considered every angle. Then she grinned. “Serves you right for not listening to me when I said to use the other cables.”

“You were the one who insisted on buying the fixer upper.”

“Hey! Amelia has character.” 

“Character isn’t going to get us to new planets.” But he was smiling anyway. “Although, If I didn’t know any better I’d say you sabotaged the ship just to stay on this one a little longer.”

“The robots  _ are  _ amazing, but I would never hurt Amelia just for the sake of spending more time with them. Besides, how are you supposed to find tiny food on a planet full of energy eating giants?” Entrapta patted the console with her hair. “Now, let me take a look.”

Hordak nodded and stepped away from the open hatch. 

Entrapta gathered up the cables she’d wanted to use all along, then took his spot and stuck her entire head and shoulders inside. Her voice echoed slightly when she spoke. “Ah ha! Here’s another problem, this cable isn’t even plugged in all the way! I don’t blame you for not seeing that though, It’s kind of a tricky angle for someone with such broad shoulders.”

There were several faint clicks and the main console whirred back to full power.

“There.” Entrapta backed out of the opening and screwed the panel back in place. “Good as new.”

There was a grease smudge on her nose. Hordak grabbed one of the rags from the tool box. 

“There’s something on your face.” He leaned towards her and wiped it away.

She considered the speck of grease on the towel, then grinned. “There’s something on your face too.”

“Where…”

She darted forward and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Right there.”

Then her hair curled around his hands. He watched it’s movements, still as fascinated as the first time he’d seen it. 

For the briefest moment something that wasn’t hair, something white, was also crawling up his arms.

He pulled away from her, a strange panic setting in. “Did you see that?”

“See what?”

“My arms.”

Entrapta frowned and leaned in close to his arms, even poked at them with her hair. “What about them?”

“You didn’t see them change?”

“No I didn’t.” Entrapta said. “Hordak are you sure you’re alright? That zap may have been worse than we thought.”

“I… I’m fine. Probably just tired. We’ve been working on the ship all night.”

“Okay.” Entrapta seemed to brighten a little. “In that case, I can handle taking off by myself if you want to go rest.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

“Then go. I’ll come get you if I need help.”

Hordak nodded and slipped through one of the bridge doors into the little bedroom. 

Entrapta had taken over most of it with her purple pillows and blankets and furniture. He caught a glimpse of himself in her mirror as he entered the room. The crystal Entrapta had bought him stood out as brilliantly as ever on its silver chain and he wrapped his hand around it. It was warm from his body heat.

They’d consolidated their hoards of scrap parts into one of the storage rooms several months ago. Even so, Entrapta’s side was cluttered with nick nacks and tools and furniture. The other side, his side, was barren in comparison, decorated only by his cannon and battle armor mounted on the wall. The clothes and smaller items had been arranged neatly in lockboxes. 

He stared up at the armor and ran a hand along its smooth metal collar.

A sharp pain shot through his body.

It took all of his will power not to scream, and when the pain finally faded he realized he had curled into a ball on the floor. 

He stood, not realizing he was facing the mirror until he saw himself in it.

White arms. Sharp elbows. Pink crystal.

“Hordak?”

He tore his eyes away from the mirror. Entrapta had appeared in the doorway. 

“I heard a noise. Are you okay? I didn’t leave my hex driver on the floor again, did I?”

“I… no. You didn’t do anything wrong. I tripped, is all. Not on the hex driver though. Like I said, I’m just tired.” He looked closer at her. What he was looking for, he wasn’t sure. 

“Is that all?” She kissed him on the cheek again. “If you're that tired you should get some sleep.” 

He smiled and kissed her back. “Will do.’

As she pulled away from him and turned to leave, he spotted it. 

The grease stain on her shirt was on the wrong side.

“Wait!” 

She paused and looked back at him. Maybe it was the misplaced grease stain playing tricks on him, but something flickered in her eyes.

He stared at her. It took a few seconds for him to come up with anything to say. “An ear massage would help me fall asleep faster.”

“What about the ship?” Entrapta frowned.

“Surely it can run on autopilot for a few minutes.” Hordak hoped he sounded teasing, and not like he was going to be sick. 

“Oh alright.” Entrapta grinned and used her hair to set him up in a sitting position on the side of the bed. “But only because those chirping noises you make are cute.”

“I am not cute.”

Entrapta laughed and brought her hair up to either side of his head. “There’s the grumpy spacebat I know and love.”

And then her eyes flashed green and her hair coiled around his neck. 

Had there been room for air to escape his lungs, he would have screamed. Instead he forced his hands to the purple mass around his neck and clawed desperately at it. Green pixels trailed after his attacks, the hair flickered, flickered, and after what seemed like an eternity, released him.

He stumbled to his feet and turned to face the poor facsimile of Entrapta. 

Lopsided green eyes, framed by lengths of tightly wound hair, looked back at him. 

“Is this really what you dream of Little Brother? How pathetic.” Prime grinned, revealing fangs in Entraptas mouth. His… her… body flickered. “I must admit however that this _ lab partner  _ of yours would make an excellent vessel.”

“You’re just a copy.” Hordak realized. “A corrupted copy of a corrupted being, living in a corrupted program.”

“Maybe so. But you’re in here with me. Came to me at my call even. Once I cleanse your influence from this body, I can use it to reclaim my little Brothers, and all will be well again.” 

Prime charged, swinging out at Hordak with a dense coil of hair that Hordak only just managed to dodge. He heard the mirror shatter behind him, and felt a shard of glass dig into his back, but forced himself to ignore it.

It wasn’t real.

Prime was dead.

This was only a copy.

That wasn’t his lab partner.

It wasn’t Entrapta.

A blur of purple hair struck him across the side of the head, Knocking him to the floor. Suddenly it wasn’t just his back feeling the sting of broken glass.

Prime hovered over him. Green pixels hovered around the  _ thing  _ that had once looked like Entrapta.

Hordak scrambled backwards until he felt his palm land on a sizable piece of glass, then stopped, wincing at the pain from a dozen cuts. Prime knelt next to him and ran a purple gloved hand over one of the wounds. 

“Program or not, it all feels so  _ real  _ doesn’t it?”

Blood was beginning to pool around him. More blood than any clone could have ever reasonably lost. Hordak tightened a blood soaked hand around the shard of glass. The edges stung and flickered red as they dug into his palm.

“It does.” Hordak admitted. 

And then he swung the glass at Prime and sliced open his throat. 

The crumbling started the instant the cut appeared. Green pixels spread from the wound, out across the fake Entraptas body and into the floor. One of them brushed against Hordak’s boot and he pulled away as a numbness spread up his leg.

Something was pressing against his chest, radiating warmth.

The crystal. 

Hordak held it tight as the world turned green.


	8. Chapter 8

“Hordak! Hordak! Please wake up!”

Entrapta’s voice was garbled through the static of his overworked cybernetics. The ground beneath him was wet.

The ground beneath him was wet.

A sudden panic surged through him as he remembered the broken glass and the blood. His eyes opened, just in time for the smell to hit him.

They were in the chamber where Prime had kept his former vessels, mere feet from the overgrown pit that had once been the purification pool. The smell was one he recognized from his time on battlefields and the ‘blood’ clinging to his hands and soaking into his clothes was amniotic fluid from shattered stasis pods. When he looked over at his arms, he’d never been more grateful to see the scars and discoloration that he had come to identify them by.

“Hordak!” 

He looked up at Entrapta, the real Entrapta. 

“How’s the…” He coughed as he inhaled the fetid air, then tried again. “How’s the signal?”

Entrapta produced the scanner and held it out for him to see. The readouts were still. “Gone!” She declared. “I don’t know what you did, but it worked!”

“It was an AI. A copy of Prime that… didn’t survive the ship's transformation very well.” Morbid curiosity made him lift his head and look around the room at the shattered pods and worn out bodies. They’d been dead long before the pods had shattered, that much was obvious. “How did I…?”

“After the holograms snapped, the signal took control of your body. This was where it took you. There was a power surge not long before you woke up and… well.” She motioned broadly with her hair at the destroyed pods. 

Hordak’s eyes followed the motion warily as he tried to stand. A yell escaped him as shooting pains went up his arms and legs and sent him crumbling back to the floor. His armor wasn’t working. The fluid had gotten into the wires where he’d sliced them with his claws and shorted it out.

Purple hair darted forward, no doubt to help him up, and he flinched away.

He hadn’t meant to, but the memory of it digging into his neck, trying to kill him, was still fresh in his mind. To her credit, Entrapta didn’t question it. Instead she pulled the hair away and wrapped her arms around him instead. “Come on Hordak. Let’s get out of this place.”

-

Entrapta flew them back to Dryl. He didn’t argue, even as she helped him into the cramped space behind the pilot's seat. He was in no shape to be operating any sort of vehicle, let alone a spaceship.

Glimmer, Bow, and Mermista were waiting in the courtyard when they landed. Bow held a tracker pad, and Hordak had no doubt that he’d been the one to notice their excursion. 

They stared out the window at them for a long moment before finally opening it. This time when Entrapta offered him support with her hair he took it. Even so, just getting from the ship down to the courtyard sent nearly unbearable waves of pain through his body, and he had to brace himself against the landing gear to keep standing. 

“So.” Glimmer crossed her arms. “Care to explain where you were?”

“Oh out and about.” Entrapta glanced over at Hordak. “Taking Dorothy for a test flight, saving the universe from the rogue A.I. that was possessing Hordak, gathering data on Horde tech. You know, that sort of thing!”

“You did what?!” Bow stared back and forth between them, mostly focusing on Hordak.

“Okay so maybe it was a bit of a long test flight. I guess I got carried away.”

“Not that part!” Sparkles flickered around Glimmer’s clenched fists.

“What, the data? I thought you didn’t care about that stuff. But if you want to look at it I have the tracker pad right here!”

“That’s not… ugh! The rogue A.I. thing. That’s what I want to know about!”

“Wait a minute.” It was Mermista that spoke up this time. She locked eyes with Hordak and frowned. “Is that why you were acting all weird in Salineas?”

Hordak looked back at her and nodded. “Prime had a… backup system… of sorts. An A.I. based on a copy of his mind, so that he could continue controlling the clones.” It occurred to him that he was still covered in amniotic fluid and he suppressed a shiver. “Had his mind control network remained intact, we’d likely still be fighting him, the copy I mean, today. Instead it was limited to my cybernetics. A parting gift from Prime I suspect.”

“And you didn’t think to tell anyone about this because…?”

“We were working off of a theory.” Entrapta said. “We couldn’t be sure until we reached The Velvet Glove.”

“The Velvet Glove?” Mermista frowned.

“Primes ship. Yes I’ve been told it’s an awful name already.” Hordak tried to cross his arms, instantly regretted it, and grabbed for the landing gear again. “Judging by your treatment of Entrapta in the past, and the fact that both of us are guilty of war crimes, it seemed unlikely that you’d allow us to go there.”

“And with good reason.” Glimmer said. “How do we know you didn’t try anything up there?”

Bow frowned. “Hordak can barely stand. I don’t think they went there for fun.”

“I mean… you never know what people are into. In Salineas Hordak kissed her under the stars while she held another clone captive in her hair.”

“Mermista!” Bow’s voice cracked.

Entrapta’s cheeks were flushed red. Hordak hoped they couldn’t tell his ears were burning. 

“Zee’s better by the way.” Mermista added. “I tricked him into eating something and he stopped trying to break everything, so I guess he was just like, hangry or something. Even his wrist is a lot better. You guys heal fast.”

Hordak latched onto the less awkward of Mermista’s announcements. “We had to if we were to be Primes vessels. Otherwise our bodies would only last a few years under his control. Now can we...” 

“Okay, but more importantly,” Entrapta butted in. “Does he like the name Zee?”

“He answers to it, but only because everyone insists on calling him that. I can’t tell if he likes it or not though. He’s still super grumpy about everything.”

“We’re getting off track here!” Glimmer said.

Hordaks legs trembled beneath him. His armor, lightweight as it was, felt heavy now that it wasn’t functioning, and the cold mountain air of Dryl felt even worse against his damp clothes. ‘Yes. We are.” He never thought he’d be agreeing with a princess other than Entrapta before, and yet here he was. “I’d appreciate it if you either hurry this along, or wait until tomorrow to come to a properly thought out decision.”

Glimmer stared at him, then at Bow and the Mermista. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but fine. Bright and early tomorrow. No excuses.”

Then she grabbed Bow and Mermista and disappeared.

Entrapta stared at the empty space where they’d been, then sighed. “Good. They're gone.” She looped her hair around Hordaks waist and shoulders. “Let’s get you to the lab so I can patch you up. Then you need to sleep.”

Hordak wouldn’t have complained even if he’d wanted to. At least now Prime couldn’t invade his dreams. 

Not in the literal sense anyway.


	9. Chapter 9

As Glimmer had promised, she returned the next morning. Not just with Bow and Mermista, but Kadroh, the four clones from Salineas, and seemingly every princess that wasn’t busy.

Hordak couldn’t help but stare at the clones curiously. Zee, with his scowl and unmarked white robes, hadn’t changed much, but the rest...

One had dyed his hair jet black and his eyes, highlighted by a swoop of glittery silver eyeliner, had shifted to a soft blue that matched perfectly with his ruffled shirt and grey pants. His ears flicked back and forth, following the calls of the mountain birds brave enough to roost near Entrapta’s castle. 

The second one wore a black shirt and dark blue overalls that left the faded scars across his arms, and at least one on his chest that poked up over the collar, visible for the world to see. He stood among the group with a confidence the others lacked. The faint but distinct scents of flour, spices, and dish soap lingered around him.

Hordak could help but be fascinated by the scars. It had been a poorly hidden secret among his brothers on the front lines that they were more prone to straying. Most succumbed to battle wounds and never became a problem. Other’s survived and became potential threats, or were accused of prioritizing their survival over Prime’s will. 

This clone had clearly survived a lot.

The third, the long haired one, had opted for a dark green shift dress and black leggings, and had woven his hair into a neat braid. He looked slightly thinner than the last time Hordak had seen him and stood at the back of the group, his hands clasped together and a nervous frown on his face. Despite being flanked by both the scarred clone and a protective looking Kadroh, he flinched whenever Zee’s glare drifted towards him.

Hordak shifted his tired gaze to Glimmer and the princesses and wished he’d had a few more hours to sleep. “You’ve bought quite a crowd. I hope that means you’ve come to a decision.”

Glimmer glanced back at Bow and the Princesses, who made various motions of agreement. “We’ve decided that, since ultimately it was you who caused the clones to end up here, and because you know the most about what they had to deal with in the Galactic Horde, you are going to host any who are willing in Dryl until they figure out what they want to do with their lives.”

“But not a lot at once.” Perfuma added. “We don’t want you starting your own Horde all over again.”

“I assure you I don’t…”

“So we’re just seeing how things go with this group first.” Glimmer said. “That way you have a manageable amount to start off with.”

“We get our own clone family?!” Entrapta grinned. “Oh, I am completely ok with that!”

“And since Entrapta has committed less war crimes, she’s going to be our go-to geek for any tech problems that Bow can’t fix.” Mermista said. “Short of a genuine emergency holding her up or whatever, she has to help wherever and whenever she’s asked, for at least a year.”

They were being let off easy, and clearly everyone knew it. Entrapta’s assignment was essentially a more demanding version of what she’d been doing in Salineas, and his new role… well, it would be interesting to see how these clones adjusted to life in Dryl. 

“Very well.” Hordak nodded to the Princesses. ”I accept.”

Glimmer looked pleased. She turned to Entrapta, who was examining the third clones’ braid. “What about you Entrapta? Does that sound acceptable?”

“What?” She paused, purple hair still wrapped around white, and looked up at Glimmer. “Oh right, tech support for a year. Got it. Hey Hordak, I wonder how you’d look with your hair grown out? I bet it’d look good on you.”

Hordak eyed the clones frown and drooped ears. “He seems a bit uncomfortable with your proximity to him.”

Entrapta dropped the braid and stepped back. “Oh, sorry!” She paused and considered the little group. “You know, you guys need names. We’ve got Zee obviously, but the rest of you need something to.”

The clone with the scars frowned thoughtfully. “The cooks in Salineas called me Basil, after my favorite herb. Is that good?”

“Do you like it?” Entrapta asked.

“I do.”

“Then it’s perfect!” Entrapta turned to the other two. “What about you guys?”

The blue eyed one shrugged. “I want one, but I want to wait until I think of the right one.”

The long haired one glanced over at Zee, then down at his boots. “I… I’m not sure.”

Kadroh patted him on the shoulder. “It’s okay Brother. It took me a few weeks to decide on my name. You’ll find one.”

“Alright.” Glimmer interjected. “You guys seem to understand what you’re doing, so uh, we’re gonna go. Okay?”

Hordak considered Entrapta and Kadroh, who were eagerly discussing names with the clones.

“I think we’ll be okay.”

“Good.” Glimmer said. “I expect regular updates.”

And then, as quickly as she had disappeared the night before, she and her entourage were gone.

Hordak took a deep breath, then approached the group of clones.

If he was supposed to be helping them adapt, then he might as well get to know them better.


End file.
